1 Year of Body Transformation

So it has been 1 year since I started my body/lifestyle transformation.

In that time I have lost 33.1 kg (73.0 lbs)  41 cm (16  inches) from my waist, gone from 35% -> 8% body-fat.  From the within the top 10% of fat people for my age to the top 10% of lean people (though BMI still says I am over-weight, but no longer obese let alone obese category II).

108.6 -> 75.5 KG including stabalization in 1 year

I have been stable in my weight for about 5 months.  That means the main change was in 7 months.  Averaging 4.5 kg (10 lbs) per month.  The end of the change was not the end of body changes.  It took several months for my body to adopt that as its stable weight.  I didn’t get the energy benefits of being thinner until I raised my calories up quite a bit (and the weight did not come back.)  I am pretty happy with this weight.  This does fit some of the adjusted BMI suggestions for people with large frames, but having my doctor confirm my caliper fat measurements makes me think I don’t need to lose more wieght to be healthy.  This level is just fine.

I have done the change, I have had to buy a new wardrobe, my co-workers cannot recognize photos of me from my union ceremony last October. My friends from before have difficulty recognizing me now. It has been a big change. My life changed in 4 major ways in the last year.

1. I got married
   yes I lost my weight and had a more attractive body after getting married
2. I started a new Job local to my place of residence
3. I lost a lot of weight and started healthier eating habits
4. I became a father

I met my goals of getting myself into statistically good shape.  Nobody is going to turn me down for health insurance again.  The tipping points for starting this change were:

1. being rejected for health insurance because of BMI over 35 and poor blood results.
2. noticing that I was not able to be satisfied with one main dish when going out to eat
3. seeing how squinty my eyes were looking in photographs

Those three factors made me think something had to change.  I was a fairly active obese man still not physically limited, aka I had high functional fitness.  But when I thought about it if I had proper health insurance all they were going to do is tell me lose weight, and it would be much cheaper to not have the insurance and just lose the weight on my own.  So that is what I did.  I built the plan and followed it.  I actually adjusted my goals to be more extreme as time went on and I could see how much progress I was making.

As of January my blood-work was in good shape triglycerides, cholesterol and all the others.  My blood pressure still runs high, I did the 24hr blood pressure test and it just does.  When I am active engaged and alert my blood pressure is high, but it drops when I relax and when I go to sleep, so the underlying arteries are just fine.

Now I have no problem receiving health care, do not get lectured by my doctor in fact get complimented on my physical condition.  I eat more normal portions when I go out (I still eat a lot, but much healthier now and have the activity profile to match).  My eyes look more lively in pictures now, it didn’t hit me how much my body had changed until I went on a business trip to Helsinki in March and was in a Hotel with lots of big mirrors.  My wife just laughed at me when I told her this over the cell phone, she said it was not surprising that I looked different.  Also for the first time in my life I can tell there are people who “check-out” my body (which makes me laugh).

So what did I do?  I break it into three parts

1) Diet (how to lose weight)

My basic strategy is:

• Always high protein (1.5 – 2.0 g of protein per KG body-weight) to minimize muscle loss & maximize fat loss
• calorie counting for reducing weight
  kitchen scale required, as was preparing most of my own meals, and I used My Calorie Counter
• severely reduced starches (exception for after exercise) and consume mostly whole foods for maintenance
• don’t start a meal or snack after 8pm

2) Exercise (this how to maintain muscle and “form” the body)

My basic strategy is:

• Whole body, compound exercise.  Working the whole body increased hormonal response and the total amount of energy expended.
• Interval training, keep the heart rate up, but give yourself little breaks so you can work harder in less time.
• 45-60 minutes 3x per week.  You don’t grow, repair muscle by working out you do it by resting.  But you stimulate the growth by working out.  This means you need have time off.  45-60 minutes is the perfect amount of time to put adequately stress  your body (again work hard I average above 70% of my reserve heart rate).  Then rest for a whole day and just do some light movement.
• Always have an alternate workout if the planned one seems too problematic (time, weather, effort).  I always have a body-weight workout if I am away from my weights and weather is terrible, I can go running if I am feeling sore or otherwise mentally tired, I have my basic conditioning workout if I am just uninspired and my current workout seems to complicated, and I have my workout plan to grow strength.
• The best workout is the one you haven’t done.  Your body gets used to everything, to keep it working hard you need to mix it up, don’t get repetitive in your workouts if your goal is body transformation.  Make sure you change exercises and systems regularly (perhaps every 4.5 kg (10lbs))

3) Motivation (this is how to make sure the goal is met)

My basic strategy is:

• set SMART goals
• public accountability (a blog like this one and the progress log)
• read/listen to the point of obsession on fitness related topics (I like thefitcast podcast).

All three of the these aspects are needed to do this level of change.